The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
There are a variety of situations in which it is desirable to have structural members with both high stiffness and high energy damping characteristics. For example, modern fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft include control mechanisms that experience both high stress and significant vibrational forces. These can include actuators for control surfaces, for example. While it is desirable to dampen vibrational forces, materials and members that are effective at energy damping often have low mechanical stiffness, making them unsuitable for the forces of the particular member. Most materials have either high stiffness or high damping, but not both. High stiffness materials, such as steel, by themselves are very poor at damping vibrational forces.
There are a variety of types of damping mechanisms that have been developed for use in machines and parts that experience vibrational and impact forces, such as engines, aircraft, etc. Many of these, however, are relatively complicated and/or expensive. High damping may be provided by the addition of dampers (which sometimes have limited effectiveness) or by active closed-loop control. For example, some known damping devices use a fluid, and include bellows and seals, and thus present the possibility for leaks. Many damping mechanisms that are known include a large number of parts and may involve significant maintenance, or they may involve exotic or expensive materials.
The present disclosure is directed toward one or more of the above-mentioned issues.